Strung Out Creations

Baking for the Holidays

I am home for the holidays getting to spend time with my family for the first time in a year. I know many Etsy owners like myself are trying to manage the stress of coordinating plans with the demands of running an online business. I just wanted to take a moment to remind everyone to breathe. Take a little time out of each day and do something you really love to pamper yourself. As you can see by my photo, I am taking time to bake with my mom and sister. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday.

Stranger then Fiction

So I watched Stranger then Fiction this weekend. It is probably one of my favorite movies. It is also one of the few movies where Will Ferrel plays a non-goofy character. It is all about the concept of the relationship between the writer and the character. You can watch the movie from his point of view. His life is overtaken by the voice of the writer, who seems to be in control of his life. A writer about to kill him with the stroke of a key... a final punctuation. From her point of view her character, who often refuses to participate, has sprung to life begging for his life. This man who was just an impression, a personality is now flesh and blood. All of which is punctuated by a third character Harold's wrist watch. This watch seems to be aware of the story as it unfolds. It tries to warn Harold of the events moments before they happen.

That got me to thinking. I have thought about doing watches. I want to do several types. I have a watch that broke. The band snapped in one spot, but the actual watch is still in great condition. So I am going to see if I can make something of it. I keep the first of all of my creation types. I keep them as reminders of when I took a chance on a concept. So now it is time to take a chance on this concept.

Light Box

So I just created a Light Box. I took a Staples box, that was once the holder of several reams of paper, preformed surgery and came out on the better side. I have yet to use it to take images of my wonderful pieces. But, I know that they work.

I also know that the one thing all of the etsy tutorials tell me is the same. The images you use for your products are the most important part of of your advertising. If the image or item doesn't look attractive, people will not want to look at it closer or buy.

Here is the tutorial I used:
How to Make An Inexpensive Light Tent – DIY

Here are a couple more for you:
How to Create an Inexpensive Photography Lightbox
Homemade Light Box for Product Photography
Homemade Photography Light Box (Video)

November Review...

So I take November off from all of my other hobbies. The main downside to that is that it is also one of the biggest holiday gift buying seasons. I have plans next year to get all of my holiday work done by October. I am a huge believer in trying to preemptively strike a problem you can see coming.

But back to the main portion of this post, I am going to say a word that gets many responses: NaNoWriMo. National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

When I tell friends about this I get one of three responses. 1.) You're doing what? 2.) People do this? or 3.) Have fun with that. Then a look like I have managed to sprout a second head.

So I sat down with an extra large cup of coffee, my laptop and Pandora Stations geared to certain emotional states. By the end of day 11, I wrote 46,499 words. I won with 125,869 words. This is my second year winning. They don't tell you about the moments you want to bang your head against the desk, because the words aren't right or the character doesn't want to participate in the scene. They don't tell you about how your fingers get stiff. They also don't tell you how the clock will mock you at four in the morning. But it is all worth it.

It is the ability to say, I did this. I made something. It may not be high lit, but this is mine.

The New Website

So as I announced last week I am working on building a site for my Etsy shop. After having read Jordan's post on websites, I decided that I had put it off too long. In honest I had. I have been working on building sites for others since high school, but I found it very intimidating to work on my own. My favorite college professor said once that the hardest person to design for is yourself. I agree. I always see the flaws and what else I could do to make it better. This means it is never done enough to put content on. But I finally did it. I created a site I am happy with. I am working right now on embedding my blog. I am not sure how I am going to do this yet.

So I want you to think about your business.
Do you have a site?
Have you considered having one made?

I took Jordan's advice to heart. You need to think about the end user. Take into consideration that this site is a promotional platform for your work. You want the user to come and stay for a while. So work backwards. As a shopper in your store what features would you want to see. If it is easier go to someones shop and do this exercise. I prefer a well laid out gallery with links to the product. I enjoy a blog to read that involves subject matters related to their art and their life.

(This is not officially a Business Sense, but I am tagging it that way so that it is easy to find.)

Website Building:

So in my real life I build websites and make things pretty. It is the easiest way I know to explain Graphic Design with Web Design skills. I am also currently working on a second Etsy store where I am going to start offering websites for a reasonable rate for other artist. But, for now I am building a site for Strung Out Creations.

I heard the quote once that "the cobbler's children never have shoes." It was a designer talking about how she does all of these amazing designs for everyone else, but her own site always seemed to become neglected or downright out of date. I have to admit I am guilty of this. It is really hard to find time for your own adventures when you are helping to guide everyone else. So I am starting with mine.

I am almost done with the site. I am mainly just working on the blog section. I don't want to loose my blogger, but I also want people to be able to read my work on my store. I have found a wonderful cheat that allows me to embed my Blogger into my site. But I am having to reformat some of the images I have used before.

Right now, I don't have a date for the site release. But, I promise to keep you informed.

Business Sense: Advertising with Craftcult.com

Craft Cult is a "Etsy helper" style site. They are the proud Heart-o-matic service, which allows you to monitor the popularity of your store and single items. It is a prettier more friendly version of Analytics. It allows you to track the flow of visitors, but unlike analytics that is the only information you get. Now the real amazing part is it allows you to separate the views an item might get and the hearts. I use this is a way to gauge the actual popularity of an item.

This is a very popular tool used by many Etsians. I know I learned about it through several shop owners and I like them pass it on to others. So this is a high traffic site.

Pricing
Craft Cult offers two styles of ads. There is the top carousel rotating image gallery. Then there are the two sidebars that have a list of eight images that switch out. (I myself have only done the side bar.) Craft Cult offers a variety of flat-rate packages starting at $15 going up to $55.

What was my experience?
I went with a seven day sidebar ad for $15. I figured this would be a great starter. Since they offer a flat rate, I didn't have to worry about surprise fees. This made this test run seem safer to me. Also, knowing that they are high traffic made it more appealing.

Here is the ad I ran:

I am in the bottom right.

Trackable Results
Here is the important stuff.

My average hits per day when I have not listed a new item is anywhere between 1 and 14. To me this seems like normal average visits if you are not promoting your store. So I consider this my base line of comparison.

I ran my ad from September 25th through August 31st. As per my google anayltics, there is a huge jump in visits. After having talked to the wonderful people at Craft Cult, they let me know that the busiest days for them are Monday and Tuesday. I assume this is because those are the first scheduled days for people after having been out all weekend.

Here are the number:
Wednesday the 25th = 21 unique visits and 2 shop hearts
Thursday the 26th = 29 unique visits and 1 shop heart
Friday the 27th = 30 unique visits and 5 shop hearts
Saturday the 28th = 12 unique visits and no shop hearts
Sunday the 29th = 29 unique visits and 3 shop hearts
Monday the 30th = 23 unique visits and 3 shop hearts
Tuesday the 31st = 10 unique visits no shop hearts

I didn't think to track item hearts. I intend to on my next trial with them. Now I didn't get a sale out of this. But, I did manage on the slow days (the 28th and the 31st) to still almost hit the high end of my non-advertising visits per day. And, on the busy days it doubled and sometimes almost tripled.

So final verdict is that this is a great site to buy on-line advertising. Since money for my store mainly comes from sales in my store I will use this advertising mainly near holidays. I am currently looking for some free sites to advertise on. If you know of any please let me know.

Business Sense: Online Advertising

I will admit that I don't have a lot of experience in this field. In fact, I am learning this in a very hands on manner. So I figured I should write about my experiences as I go. This way people, who may also be looking into but a little cautious, can see what I have done. So first there is the learning the jargon section of it. Here is the Wikipedia Article that covers it. Now for my basics:

Methods of Payment

CPV (Cost Per View):
This means that every time your ad is displayed on the website you will have to pay for it.

CPC (Cost Per Click)
This means that every time your ad is displayed on the website and someone clicks on it you will have to pay for it.

My preference at this point is a flat rate or a CPC (Cost Per Click) situation. I am going to be doing articles on different sites that offer advertising as I go. So this will be an on and off again article chain, but they will all by tagged with Online Advertising

What sites do you advertise on? What are your preferences?

Gearing up for the holidays

I am back to blogging. (And I know the irony that this is the second or third post in a row to say that.) It is amazing how you will suddenly not having anytime when you find a project you want to work on.

So as the title of the post suggest the holidays are around the corner. Along with present buying, wrapping paper, and holiday dinners. I have to admit that I still go into the holidays with a child like enthusiasm. I always have this clear feeling of love and family at this time. Since it was only my Mom and Sister we tend to be really close. It was kind of like living in an all girls club house. My Mom is also huge on Christmas. She has a curio where she houses her expensive Santa figurines year round. My favorite is a Santa kicked back in a wooden beach chair with a palm tree, sunglasses, beach shirt and a coconut with colored umbrella.

But for Etsy sellers this can become a very stressful time. So I want you to check out this amazingly useful booklet: 2010-2011 Holiday Marketing Planner

It is a 21-page document that is designed to help you layout your holidays from September 2010 to February 2011. (I can't believe it is around the corner.) I signed up, printed and sat down with it last night. The package is simple to use. I set up my scheduling and goals I have for myself. I then scaled them back a tad bit knowing how busy I am going to be. But it was a feeling of piece of mind. I like being organized. I like having a plan. This booklet will give you both. If you are looking to take advantage of all of the gift buying this year. I suggest start planning now.

My birthday was on the 24th. It was wonderful. I spent the day before swimming and canning homemade preserves. I am going to list a few of my recipes on here in case this is something you have ever considered getting into. Then I spent the day of my birthday with my friends hanging out and eating cake. And, I spent the day after at my favorite cajun restaurant with my roommates parents. All and all... it is a good way to spend the changing of time. Take a few days and make an event of it.

So I learned a few things in my birthday month off from Etsy and blogging:
1. When you blog make sure that you don't over do it. This means I am going to blogging on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.

2. Everyone should celebrate their birthday like it is an event. You managed to survive another year and gain wisdom. This is a feat to be met with copious amounts of celebration.

3. Taking too long to get back to your hobbies will effect your personality. All of that creative energy has to go somewhere. If it doesn't you will most likely begin to express it negatively.

4. You should probably only take one custom order at a time if it will take more then two or three days to complete.

Current Projects

I just finished up two custom orders. One was a wonderful butterfly cuff that has a steampunk look. It had a first for me. The embroidered section of the cuff is not a solid piece. It is two pieces that are bridged by a brass metal work butterfly. It actually looks really amazing with section of a copper blank behind it.

I also completed a custom plaid bracelet for a wonderful woman on Etsy. It is a variation of the bracelet with the colors of her family tartan. It actually turned out more amazing then I thought it would be. I am actually really happy about it.

Now I am working on another cuff. It has a large hematite cabochon in the center. It is fastened down with black hex delicas, then surrounded with light gun metal delicas. So at this point I thought it was going to take on a similar feel to the Metalicuff. But every other type of delica or bead seemed wrong. Then I found these round rough cut quartz crystal beads. Now the cuff has this crazy traditional victorian style feel. So I am going to go with it.

Things I learned...

Friday Feature: Groovy Glass Girl

1. Tell us a bit about yourself. I'm random, yet organized, obsessed with color, I dream of having a bright open studio where I spend all of my free time painting, I love bicycles, beards, tattoos & magazines....and if you must know I was born in the 70's and my real name is Poppy.

2. What first made you want to become an artist? I think being an artist is in my blood. I remember kits my Mom used to buy me to make my own Winnie the Pooh character teddies, hook rugs, sewing my own Barbie clothes and accessories. Even in high school I made my own hats & clothes & painted everything. My friends used to make fun of me because even the way I arranged food on a plate was done creatively!

3. Please describe your creative process. I almost always start from a sketch, read a lot of fashion magazines for inspiration and I often start with a color combination as an inspiration.

4. Name your top five books, movies, musicians, and websites besides Etsy.
Movies: The Royal Tenenbaums, Amelie, Frida. I'm reading a really great book right now called Sacred Balance by David Suzuki, She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb is one of my faves. Music: Matt Good, The Ramones, Sarah Harmer, Bad Religion....I'm really moody about music... song shuffle on my iPod is the best.

5. What advice would you give to artists on Etsy?
Don't expect Etsy to bring sales to you...Etsy is so big now sellers really have to work at bringing in their own customers. I find that the more time I spend on my shop the more sales I get. If I neglect it the only sales I get are from my returning customers.....which are so great by the way.....I love you regular customers.

6. How do you promote your work?
I do some local events, blog a bit, post on Facebook when I list... but mostly it's through word of mouth, friends of friends etc.

Friday Features: Janey Mac Press

1. Tell us a bit about yourself.
We are a mother daughter design team. We work from home in Idaho.

2. What first made you want to become an artist?
I (the daughter) started out with architecture. I really loved design, and once I had kids I felt my creative senses moving into different directions and landed with designing vinyl for home living spaces - but I mostly love to design decals for children's spaces.

3. Please describe your creative process.
I get a lot of my inspiration from fabrics and trends.
I like to keep my design classic looking. I feel like clean and fresh designs are what come naturally to me.

4. Name your top five books, movies, musicians, and websites besides Etsy.
Books: John Adams, The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands, Gone with the Wind,
The DaVinci Code & Hunger Games
Movies: Steel Magnolias, Gladiator, The Count of Monte Cristo, Gone with the Wind and Any Shrek movie :)
Musicians: Imogen Heap, The Beatles, Enya, Peter Bjorn and John & Sarah Mclachlan
Websites: Shabby Apple, Spearmint Baby, Decor8blog, picnik & Ucreate

5. What advice would you give to artists on Etsy?
Stay true to your style :)
Like Dr Seuss says:
'Today you are you, that is truer that true. There is no one alive who is youer than you.'

6. How do you promote your work?
I advertise on blogs and do local markets.
We also have our own blog where we do weekly giveaways, inspiration, tutorials etc.
www.janeymacpress.blogspot.com

Posting later today then I normally do. But, this is worth sharing. I woke up this morning to that wonderful feeling. I sold another piece. It always feels good. The best part about selling a piece is that I now get to reinvest that money into more beads. This means eventually more pieces, and hopefully more sales. It is a nice growth cycle.

Now off to Fire Mountain Gems. If you are a beader this is a good way to order. I know I have mentioned them before. They have a teired discount. I always make sure to be able to order enough to at least get the first discount. There is never a reason to pay full price. Never. I have ordered the new brand of Delicas called Dyna-Mites. They are the house version and I haven't worked with them before. I am going to put a review up here when I get to play with them.

Business Sense: Last Call

So I seem to have run out of ideas for this line of articles. I know there is a lot more out there that I haven't covered. So I am giving you a chance to give me ideas. I figure there might be issues that you have run into and want advice, or a second opinion on. Just leave a message and I will find an answer for you.

I am also trying to come up with another series for my blog. If you have any ideas of what you would like to see let me know. I want my blog to always be useful to you and entertaining.

Again, if you have a question and need an answer let me know by leaving a message.

Friday Features: Trendy Knitting

1. Tell us a bit about yourself and 2. What first made you want to become an artist?
I have been knitting and crocheting since I was a little girl. I don’t remember when I exactly started. However when my first daughter was born, I started to spend more time on design so I could knit more creative things for her. Because at that time it was not as easy to find different clothes for babies in Turkey, we didn’t have lots of alternatives. By the way, my first daughter is 30 years old now :). So, I have been a full time mother for about 30 years. I have two daughters and a son. But my daughters were married about 2-3 years ago and my son is in another city at university. So, although I’m a very social person and have lots of friends, it was just two of us at home with only my husband. :) I realized that I had lots of spare time and I need a success story in my life for myself. For a long time, I had forgotten to think about myself.

Meanwhile, my daughter mentioned about Etsy, its potential, system etc. I like the idea of selling my own handmade pieces worldwide. My daughter and I became a team, and opened our shop on Etsy. I’m responsible of all the design and production process of our Etsy shop, Trendy Knitting, and she is responsible of all the communication and listing process on Etsy, since I’m not as good at English. And for about 2 years, I feel very good about myself, happy and successful. Now I have a success story for myself. I design and knit handmade accessories and people from all around the world buy and love my items :). I become so happy when receiving positive feedback and compliments from my customers. Moreover, I have a production team of 5 people, who are full time mothers too. And I provide them the opportunity to make some money by working at home. This makes me so happy too.

3. Please describe your creative process.
Inspiration doesn’t come at the time when I start to think about designing a new item. It comes when I’m dealing with another thing, when I shopping around or observing people on the street, their clothes, their styles etc. Actually, because of this, I love my own inspiration process, having the idea on the time that you don’t expect makes you much happier.

After having the inspiration I start to think about the details of the item, which material and color to use, what differentiates it from substitutes, which details to add to make that accessory unique etc. After having all these in my head, I start to knit or crochet my new accessory. If my first draft wins approval from my daughters :), then it’s my team’s turn. They make this new item in 3-4 different colors; we list the item on Etsy and wait for its buyers.

4. Name your top five books, movies, musicians, and websites besides Etsy.
For books, my favorite is all Dan Brown books and Lord of the Kings and Harry Potter series. While it is not a movie, I love the LOST however I did not like the ending. :) My favorite musician is Bon Jovi and the website is Craftopolis :)

5. What advice would you give to artists on Etsy?
Actually I do not have a specific piece of advice for the Etsy Sellers, but I’m a very social and positive person. I try to get all the pleasure of every second of my life, and by this way I’m so happy. I suggest to everyone to try to be happy and have a success story for you as well :).

6. How do you promote your work?
Well I have a loyalty card for my customers. Each of my customers gets the loyalty card and I give them special offers for their future orders. This special offers are not only for my customers, but also for their friends :)

Home Again, Home Again...

After every car trip I sit down and think about the small lessons I have learned. It has become a tradition since my trip to New Orleans four years ago. I make a list of 10 thing I didn't know before. So in keeping with tradition.

Things I learned:

1. It doesn't matter how big or comfortable the vehicle is after 5 hours it isn't.
2. Being the navigator only works if the driver will follow the directions and not argue over every step.
3. Cities you are not used to never label streets or highways well enough. It is worse if you have good directions.
4. Eating a brownie out of the back of a large toy dump truck is more fun then it sounds. (So you will believe me: The Dirty Dump Truck
5. Pools in hotels are built for 6 year old children to swim in which is why they are only 5' deep at best.
6. That a company or the government will pay me not to start a Wind Farm.
7. That some childhood stories you should never admit to... You will never hear the end of it from your friends.
8. That being the same height as a 13 year old is a disadvantage at a summer program for middle school students.
9. That you never need ear plugs when you need them, and need them when you can't find them.
10. That coming home to a made bed is the best feeling ever.

My trip was mainly uneventful. The first day we spent 8-9 hours in the truck and stayed in St. Louis for a day. Then we got up and drove another 4 hours to Kansas City. This is were most of the trip happened. I decided that if I ever move I am going out there. It is amazing. The part of the city where we stayed was really well laid out, artsy, and was gorgeous. I also found that the cost of living seems to be cheaper out there. Two days later we got back in the truck and drove 9 hours to Nashville. We made a pit stop by my home town of Clarksville. It is amazing how small that place seems now. I know a lot of it is that I live in Atlanta. Everywhere seems kind of small now. But I was happy to see that the house my Mom built was still there. I got a few photos for her. Then in Nashville we were so tired from the trip we only slept. The next morning it was another four hours back to the safety of home. I missed my bed. Since this post if long I am only going to add a few of my favorite photos...

I will be putting more up on my flickr if you want to look in a few days.

Iron Butterfly

First, yes I totally listen to them. I am a big fan of classic rock, hair band rock, heavy metal, and the always bad but fun fantasy rock.

Now on with the show. I finally finished the custom cuff for CyberCulinary. You can find her on Twitter and Etsy. I think she is working on a way to bring her love of cooking to Etsy. She tends to represent herself in Butterflies, because of the constant changing in their growth pattern. Knowing her it is extremely accurate. Every time I talk to her she has a new recipe or craft she wants to try. In that way we are very much the same.

So here are some really fuzzy images. I am going to take some really nice ones when I get back from my trip.

On the Move

As you read this I will be somewhere in between St. Louis, Mo and Nashville, TN. I took the weekend and dropped off my niece at the Duke Summer Program. It is amazing to think of what she is going to be doing there. I have never known a person so eager at such a young age to actually work towards her goal of being a doctor. So this week when I get back I am going to be posting about my adventure across country.

I won't actually be back at my home until Tuesday Night. So this weeks posts are going to be rather sparse.